Vickie Brown who writes the delightful and informative blog The Moveable Feast is a personal chef in Southern Virginia. Or as she puts it, she's a chef by trade and a country girl by heart. Her blog is filled with wonderfully delicious recipes spiced with Texan wit and she is also prone to sharing her passion for animals, namely dachshunds. She also has a really cool knitting blog called The Virginia Purl. A country girl indeed! Here's what Vickie, a Temple, Texas native, misses:Where do you come from? Do you still have family there? I was born in Ft. Worth but have no family who lives there. My father's family is scattered around the Lubbock area and my mother's family is in and around the Temple area. I claim Temple as home because my grandmother lived there my whole life until she passed away a few years ago. It's always been our family "base camp" because my father was in the military and we moved around a lot.
Where and when did you live in Texas? I really wish I had a chance to live there a long time, but when my father was stationed in Texas I was in elementary school and we lived there for three years. After he retired we moved back to the Lubbock area so he could finish his degree and lived there about 18 months. I lived there again later my senior year in high school and then again when I was first newly married. We are hoping to retire in Texas someday and that will be it for me ever leaving the state again!
What do you miss most about Texas? The least? I miss the wide open spaces. I miss towns that don't run one right into another. I don't, however, miss the heat.
What's your favorite Tex-Mex restaurant in Texas? What do you order? I don't have a favorite Tex-Mex restaurant because every time we see one, I have to eat there. I have eaten at a few hole-in-the-wall places that the health department would condemn, but they had some great food. I am a guacamole nut--I have to eat it on everything! I hate pre-fab guacamole; I want real avocados and no salsa in it either. I am a purist when it comes to guac. But I love any kind of Mexican food. I have gotten into fish tacos lately, with guacamole of course.
What's your favorite barbecue place in Texas? What do you order? My favorite place to eat BBQ is Al's BBQ Barn in Temple, TX. I have been eating there since I cut my first tooth. I love their BBQ sausages, potato salad and the cold, sweet iced-tea chaser.
Your chili: beans or no beans? I was taught that no self respecting Texan eats beans in his or her chili. NO beans!
When you go to Texas, and you go to the grocery store, what's the first thing you grab that you can't get where you live? I love HEB Central Market in San Antonio. I have been there twice while on business and that place will knock your socks off. I think the first two things I always get while I am there is cumin by the pound and handmade flour tortillas.
What's your favorite place to eat Texan food where you live now? How does it compare to the real deal? Plaza Azteca. It's the real deal because no one speaks great English in there and that's okay with me. And they make their guacamole by hand. I love eating there and go as often as I can.
I'm a guacamole nut myself, and some of the stuff they pass off as guacamole on the East Coast is terrifying! You're fortunate to have a local place that makes it by hand. And yes, Central Market is one of the best grocery stores ever and it's always one of the first places I visit when I go home, too--you can't beat getting spices by the pound and handmade tortillas. Thank you, Vickie! And stay tuned...another Homesick Texan Q&A coming soon.
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